Red Rag to a Bull
by Hecatia10
Summary: When Lisbon isn't at work one Monday morning the team is told she has messaged in sick, but when they find evidence of her presence at a crime scene, Jane and the team have to work out what happened to her, and if her undercover work for the drug squad has put her in danger . Meanwhile, Lisbon just hopes that they find her in time . (Show-style Jisbon etc :) )
1. Monday Morning

**Red Rag to a Bull**

_-_  
_Setting: Early Season 4_  
_-_

**CBI Headquarters, Monday morning.**

It was not unusual for Jane to be late to work. In fact, unless they had a call, his colleagues were usually glad when he was. Especially on Mondays. It meant he hadn't spent the weekend sleeping on the couch in the bullpen or in his attic upstairs.  
On this particular Monday it was late morning before he arrived.

"Morning Jane" Grace smiled as the blonde consultant threw himself onto to his favorite couch.

"Morning!" he mumbled cheerfully in return "How are you all enjoying being inside on this bright sunny day?"

"Not at all" Rigsby interrupted from behind a towering pile of papers on his desk.

"No calls?"

"Not a single one" Grace said cheerfully.

"Meh," Jane grumbled; "boring."

Grace sighed "We've been over this before Jane, it's a good thing when we don't have a murder scene to attend."

"Yes," Jane murmured, "its a good thing when homicide detectives are bored..."

"Mmmhmm," Grace agreed, already absorbed back into her work.

Jane smiled to himself, Lisbon had told him that. If he remembered correctly (and he always did) he had been kidnapped shortly afterwards. If he was superstitious he would have knocked on wood, but he wasn't, so instead he pushed himself up off the couch and wandered over to Lisbon's office. She wasn't there, and he couldn't see her laptop or bag, so he popped his head around the doorway of the bullpen and called out to the others.  
"Hey, anyone seen Lisbon?"

"No." Cho replied.

"Not since Friday, she was still finishing paperwork when I left," Rigsby added. "Grace?"

"Same here, but I think she had a meeting with the Director and Wainright this morning, she'll probably be back after lunch."

"Ah, okay then." Jane walked back into Lisbon's office and lay down on her couch. He could wait for her here, perhaps when she got back he could convince her to get out of her office for lunch, she spent way too much time in here.

It was two hours later that a loud knock woke him from his dose. He turned his head to see Wainright at the door before flickering his eyes towards Lisbon's desk to see if she had snuck in without him noticing (which was unlikely). She hadn't.

Jane noticed Wainright noticing his glance. "So you haven't seen her either huh? She was't at the meeting this morning?" He asked.

"No."

"It's not like her to be late."

"She messaged in sick this morning."

Jane paused for a moment, turning his attention to the ceiling again, "Interesting, I think that must be a first. She usually ignores the fact that she's sick and comes in anyway."

"It's a good thing. She could do with a day off."

"Mmm."

"What is it?"

"Nothing," Jane answered, before swiftly throwing his legs off the side of the couch and standing up. "I'll be back later Luther."

Wainright tried not to be ruffled by the use of his first name, "Where do you think you're going?"

"To see Lisbon. If she's sick she'll be at home."

"And probably enjoying not having to deal with you," Wainright added, blocking the doorway.

Jane smiled at him, "Yes, that's probably true. But she could always do with some tea. Anyway, I've got nothing to do here, we don't have a case, no clues to follow, I'm bored."

"Well then you'll be happy to get straight to the crime scene; a call came in a few minutes ago. You can go bother Lisbon later if you must." Wainright responded, unblocking the doorway and heading towards his office.

"Spoilsport," Jane muttered.

"I heard that!" Wainright reprimanded from down the hall, "Remember, case first."

The consultant rolled his eyes and headed towards the bullpen clapping at the rest of the team to hurry them on. "Come on, things to do, bodies to see, murders to solve." he chanted.

Grace couldn't help but be slightly amused, "You really don't have to seem so enthusiastic Jane" she sighed as he pushed them out the door towards the elevator.

**Oakland Road, Sacramento, California**

"The car seems to have crashed off the road a few days ago, they haven't pined down the exact date yet or what caused the crash but there are signs that it wasn't an accident." Rigsby summarised.

"And the dead guy?" Jane asked, nodding towards the man sprawled out on the ground.

"Jared Silverstein, 32. Two gunshots to the chest, one to the shoulder, no injuries form the crash though, so I'm guessing he wasn't the driver. Lives about 15 minutes away. 87 Falkland avenue."

"Well most crashes occur less then 20 minute from home" Jane mused. He was quite pleased with the location of this particular crime scene. Lisbon's house was about 10 minutes away, meaning he would probably be able to stop by and see how she was on their way back to the CBI...

"He works at a club in the city," Grace announced, checking her phone as more information arrived, "The Red Room.''

Jane started for a second before plunging his hands into his pockets to find his phone.

"The Red Room. The Red Room. Red room, red room, red room. Why does that sound familiar?" Rigsby questioned, eyebrows raised at Jane's sudden activity.

Cho answered; "Its a high end club, been under surveillance for years as a suspected hot spot for crooked activity all over Sacramento; drugs, murder, hit-men, kidnapping, money laundering, the lot. But no-ones been able to find any hard evidence because they haven't been able to get anyone inside."

Jane hurriedly found a familiar number on his phone.

"Murder, arson and jaywalking hey?" Rigsby smiled.

Jane put the phone to his ear; 'Come on, come on, pick up'. The call went straight to voicemail.

"Pretty much," Cho responded, waking away to talk to the SFPD officer that was motioning to him.

Grace noticed Jane's look of concern as he found another number and tried again. "Are you okay Jane?"

He looked up at her as the second call kept ringing. 'Please pick up'; "Lisbon was helping the drug squad with an investigation. She was working undercover on Friday night. At a bar in the city. The Red Room."

Rigsby and Grace exchanged a worried glance, "You don't think...?"

"Hey guys?" Cho called. "Guys look at this."

Three faces turned to see what Cho was bringing towards them; wrapped in its plastic evidence bag was a short black leather jacket.

"That's not..." Grace started.

Jane let the phone drop slowly from his ear as his call continued to ring through

"...is it?" Rigsby asked.

"They found it further away in the woods, signs of a struggle, possibly 3 or more people. No personal possessions in the pockets but there should be DNA so we can find out from that if..."

"No need for that Cho" Jane interrupted, eyes scouring the jacket for details, "It's Lisbon's."

His call finally stopped ringing and through the silence the whole team could hear the message as it connected to voicemail 'Hi, you've reached Teresa Lisbon, I can't make it to the phone right now so leave your name and number and I'll get back to you. Thanks.'

_-_  
_Authors Note: I started writing this long enough ago that it was originally set during Hightower's time. Basically the idea was to take a number of things I wanted to see happen in a Mentalist episode and make them happen (Lisbon undercover etc). With the new season premiere about to come out I decided that I should begin publishing in case some of my ideas were used in the show, especially with those pesky adds teasing us so! _  
_Anyways, hope you're enjoying it so far..._  
_-_


	2. Three Days Earlier

**Three days earlier**

Lisbon sighed loudly at the pile of paperwork on her desk. Unfortunately that didn't make it go away and she scowled with out looking up from her work at the cheery smiling face of her blonde consultant as he popped his head, and then the rest of his body, around the edge of her door.

"What is it Jane?"

"Oof, you are in a bad mood today grumpy" he admonished cheekily "Bit too much time inside perhaps? In need of a break from paper work?"

"Paper work that mostly YOU are the cause of."

"Meh."

"It was the DA's brother Jane! Did you really have to mess with him like that?"

"He was asking for it. Anyway, he should be thanking me for solving the case and clearing him of murder rather then trying to get me fired for such a silly thing like that."

"You broke up his marriage, stole his car and _almost burnt down his house. __**Twice.**_ Silly things like that you mean?"

The consultant was not phased. "I'm going upstairs for lunch, you should join me."

Lisbon turned to glare at him "As you have so aptly noticed, this pile of paperwork is keeping me inside, and will do so for a couple of hours more at least, so I'll have to politely decline."

"Aww come on," Jane pouted, "Do it later. Why are you doing it now anyway?"

Lisbon sighed again and put down her pen. She wasn't going to get anything done before she managed to evict her insistent visitor from the room. "I can't do it later, the Drug Squad need my help with an operation tonight which means that I have to get this done now."

"Sounds intriguing. What's the operation?" Jane asked, wandering over to find a comfortable spot on her lounge.

"There's this club in the city they've been working to get into for months," Lisbon explained "They've suspected it as a important spot for basically all the drug runners in the midtown area for years. A few weeks ago, one of their team who had been working undercover for ages made a contact and they finally set up a way in."

"And they need you because...?"

"If you didn't interrupt, I was getting to that."

"Okay fine, be that way. Grumpy"

"The agent who was set up to go in got glandular fever a few days ago."

"So she can't do it."

"Yeah."

"And the operation's tonight?"

"Yep."

"Ahhh, you're taking her place."

"What a great deduction." Lisbon remarked sarcastically

"Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

"It shouldn't be, it's been graded for low level surveillance."  
"Then can't they just call it off until she gets better?"  
"It has to be tonight or the deal's off. Months, actually years, of work has to be restarted. I have almost the same physical characteristics as her so they asked me to step in, and I know the case so I should be able take over without too much hassle."

"So you're going undercover..."

"Yeeesssss Jane." Lisbon chuckled to herself "Bit slow today are we?"

"Not at all," he responded, standing up and walking towards the door. "Well that sounds like fun. You better get back to your paper work."

A cheeky smile touched the edge of his lips. A cheeky smile that Lisbon did not miss. "_Jane?_" She asked "What are you thinking?"

"Nothing at all Lisbon. My mind is blank. Blank as a new canvas," He paused in the doorway and turned to face her.  
"What did you say the name of the club was?"

"I didn't."

"Quite right. No matter," he threw her a huge smile as he darted out the door. "See you later Lisbon."

"Jane? Where are you going? Jane? Jane!" She groaned and rested her head on her desk for a second. Now she had another thing to worry about, and a rising headache. She reached for her top draw, dragging out a bottle of Nurofen. She was going to kill that man someday, god help her.


	3. Friday Night, The Red Room

**Friday Night - The Red Room**

The Red Room easily lived up to its name. The walls were draped in red fabric, the warped modern chairs made of translucent red plastic. Even the lighting was mostly red, apart from the changing lights of the dance floor which swayed through a selection of bright colors in time with the deafening beat of the music. The lower half of the club was full to the brim, an impressive layout allowing more distinguished guests to escape the crowd in higher levels which looked out over the dancers in an almost royal way. A woman with dark shoulder length hair moved among the upper level with a practiced grace that made her subtly stand out from the others. Green stones glittered in her silver jewelry, making an impressive statement of wealth as they hung nonchalantly from her neck, wrist and ears. The deep colour of the stones complemented her bright green eyes and drew the eye of every man in the room to her skin, left seductively bare around her shoulders, neck and a little of her back, but which was mostly hidden behind a figure-complementing black dress. The woman held herself confidently, with a look in her eyes that assured those close enough to see it that she was on a mission. A mission that most men hoped included them.  
Across the room a figure seated in shadows lent over to give a few short commands to his body guards, motioning to the figure in black and green and commanding leave of the women clinging around him.

A few minutes later a new figure entered the scene. His blonde hair was messily styled and his suit attractively untidy. The quality and newness of his clothing gave him an air of wealth that suited him easily to the upper half of the club and his exceedingly smooth and charismatic manner charmed all he talked to. He found his way to the bar, instantly attracting service and ordering himself a drink, sending wide smiles that reached his twinkling blue eyes with ease to the bar-keep as he did so. Confidence oozed out of his every pore and drew the eyes of every woman there. _His_ eyes however, carefully scanned the faces of the room, on the look out for one in particular, even as he chatted charmingly to the women who came and sat by him and who he smoothly turned away with his wedding ring. It was the shadowed table against the far wall of the room that drew his attention. The men standing not-so-inconspicuously nearby obviously bodyguards. From where he sat he could just see the bodies of two figures at the table, only able to catch glimpses of them through the crowd. The first figure was a man. Although his face was almost hidden, his whole posture oozed relaxation and absolute control. The other figure was a woman with dark hair, her green and silver jewelry glinting in the light; it was the particular face he had been looking for. He gestured to the waitress he had spent the night thoroughly charming and asked about the woman in the corner, to be told only that she was a little familiar and that every man in the joint had been sending her free drinks on their behalf all night. The man smiled, "Perfect," ordering a drink for the dark-haired woman and sending a message along with it.

At the table in the corner the woman leaned forward and re-crossed her legs. "So we have a deal?"

The man also leaned forward, his eyes trailing up and down before settling on her eyes, "Of sorts," he agreed, leaning back again and mock sighing as a waitress approached the table carrying two drinks. "One for both of us is it this time?"

"Yes Mr Monary, from the blonde gentleman at the bar again." The light-haired waitress turned to the woman "He sent another message for you."

The woman sighed, "Could you stop bringing them please?"

The man smiled and laughed wryly. "What? Turning away free drinks? Why on earth would you want to do that? Let him buy us drinks, and keep bringing them my dear." He turned to face the woman again, "Now what's the message for our lovely lady here?"

"He said that jewelry looks lovely with your eyes and hopes you'll join him at the bar for a drink."

The green-eyed woman frowned inwardly. Why did that sound familiar she wondered, where had she heard that before? But she only raised her eyebrows at the man sitting across from her, "He's a forward one this one," she surmised before watching the waitress leave and returning to her former matter of business. Half a second later the clues clicked into place. A forward blonde-haired man who happened to send her her favorite drink and messages that sounded familiar? 'Oh crap' she thought. 'I really didn't need this tonight'.  
She excused herself for a moment at the next available opportunity.

The man in the corner watched closely as the woman headed towards the bathroom. Half a minute later he didn't miss the movement of a blonde head from the bar disappearing in a similar direction.

"What the hell are you doing here Jane?" Lisbon whispered angrily, pulling her consultant away into a hidden corner of the club's upper level and pushing him against the wall.

"Woah, calm down girl. You can't say you're not happy to see me." Jane smiled cheekily, hands in the air as if in surrender.

"Yes I can, because I am _really_ not. Not at all. What were you thinking?" She asked, eyes on the look out for any listening ears.

"I was thinking it was a nice night for a drink at a club", he said, straightening his shirt.

"Please don't screw with me Jane. How did you find out? No, don't tell me, you probably hypnotized someone."

"Of course not, that'd be illegal" Jane admonished. "I have to say, I'm very impressed with you, you're doing a great job out here. You should do it more often." Lisbon glared at him, but Jane could see her anger dissipating very slightly. "I wanted to come say hi, get some excitement, I've been very bored."

"Whatever Jane. You need to leave. Now."

"This man causing you any trouble Janet my dear?" The man from the corner walked into view, two bodyguards looming close behind him. Lisbon took a second to slip back into character, mind racing as she turned around, running through her conversation with Jane to find an excuse. For once she was very annoyed to come across a perfect cover for the situation, Jane was going to have a field day. "Not really Max, just old boyfriends who don't know when to give up." She said, turning around to glare at Jane, really hoping he wouldn't make the most of the opportunity that had presented itself, "He was just about to LEAVE."

Jane had been sizing up the man in front of him. He had taken an instant disliking to him as soon as he opened his mouth. There was a smooth cruelty about the way he talked that Jane was for once wary of. The man - Max - was a little taller than Jane, and older too. His short dark hair was carefully styled, but with a hint of unruly-ness, his eyes were an interesting shade of blue with intermittent specks of an almost grey colour, and there was a alarming coldness behind them. The suit he was wearing was tailored to fit him perfectly, top button casually left undone, but his shirt was slightly skewed around the collar and Jane noticed traces of glitter along the sleeves which he guessed came from whichever women he had been close to recently. Around his wrist was a gold, watch, huge and expensive-looking. For the first time, Jane decided that this was a situation he would only make worse by being in and though he did not like for a second the thought of Lisbon, or anyone for that matter, being alone with this man, he decided to follow Lisbon's lead and dove into character.

That didn't of course mean that he was going to let this opportunity to mess with Lisbon slide, and he was always up for a performance.

"Aww, come on darling" he crooned "I just wanted to see you. There's no harm in that right? Right?" he asked, shuffling closer to Lisbon then turning to smile at Max. "Who are you? Are you the new boyfriend? Have I been replaced?" He pouted slightly and turned back to Lisbon "Janet honey, have I?" then back to Max with a wide smile; "She's a feisty one this one, you'll want to look out for that," Jane told him conspiratorially, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Lisbon was at the same time fighting off a smile and the great urge to punch Jane in the nose. Jane played the slightly drunk ex-boyfriend well.  
"He's a business associate" she scowled "and you're leaving," she added, turning to face Max and walk away.

"Would you like the boys to see him out?" Max interjected. "Toughen him up a bit maybe?"

Lisbon couldn't help her eyes flickering back to Jane 'god, how do I get him out of this one', she wondered in a slight panic, the thought that she was the only one allowed to beat him up drifting through the back of her mind.  
"He's not worth the time", she declared and walked away back to the corner table. Max turned a few seconds later, after eyeing Jane, to follow her. He gestured to one of his bodyguards to see the blonde man out.

~

The noise of the club was just a dull thumping from outside. Jane brushed the gravel off his suit, recovering from a slightly stronger then necessary push out the door, and continued to act a little drunk until he was well out of the sight of the club. As soon as he was, he jumped into his car and headed straight for the surveillance van parked a few streets away. The drug team had done a pretty good job of blending in, anyone who wasn't Jane wouldn't have spotted anything amiss. However Jane _was_ Jane, and after doing a lap of the roads before going into the club he had worked out where they were straight away. He parked his car in the next street and wandered carefully down the road, knocking on the van's back door and smiling when he felt a sudden movement from inside. "It's Jane," he said whispering as audibly as he could, then standing back so that the door could open. It did a few moments later and he jumped inside. The team inside the truck were NOT happy with him. However Jane started talking before they had a chance to tell him off and didn't stop until he had convinced them to let him stay and keep an eye on things.

~

It was 4.26 on Saturday morning when Lisbon finally emerged from the club. Through the cameras hidden outside, they watched as she walked outside and hailed a cab. It wasn't until she had jumped out of the cab a few blocks away and gotten into 'Janet's' sleek red car that she spoke through the mic to the surveillance team. "How are you going guys, still awake?"

The man beginning to doze off on the other end of the mic jumped in his seat, much to Jane's amusement. "Of course" he murmured sleepily.

The team's boss, James Cadie, took over, knocking the sleepy younger man off the mic and taking over himself. "Good work Lisbon. We've got a lot on tape."

"None of it is real evidence though, he was so very careful to be cryptic."

"It doesn't matter, everything went to plan so he'll be caught as soon as we sort this deal."

"Mmm, mostly to plan. Sorry about Jane, I can't believe he wormed his way in like that. He is such a pain, as you very well know, I tell you, he..."

Jane took this opportunity to announce his presence, sweeping his legs down from the table they had been resting from and leaning over to the mic. "Hello Lisbon."

"Jane?!"

"The one and only"

"How the hell did you... you know what, never mind. You and I need to have a serious talk the next time I see you. You can't just bust into an undercover operation like that!"

There was a rustling sound as something was pulled across the surface of the mic. Jane would've bet his years wages on the fact that she was pulling her usual leather jacket on over the top of the gorgeous dress she had been wearing.

"Well I did, and I'm glad I did because I don't like that Max guy at all and after talking to these guys I think you need to update your profile on him."

Lisbon sighed, "We'll talk about this later Jane. Cadie? I'll see you for debriefing Monday afternoon. 4 o'clock? Sorry I can't make it in earlier but I would like to have a few hours sleep this weekend and I still have a lot of paper work to do."

"No problem Lisbon, we won't need you until then anyway. And we need you well rested. Now remember, you're not going home first, You have to..."

"I know," Lisbon interrupted "I have to drive around for a bit and go to 'Janet's' house and then on Sunday morning, if no-one's watching I'm allowed to go back to my house."

"That's undercover work for you." Cadie said with a smile.

"It's a good thing that you're used to having little sleep." Jane added, but the other two ignored him.

"Have a good weekend Cadie"

"You too Lisbon."

"As for you Jane, I'll see _you_ on Monday morning."

Jane smiled at her tone of voice, he was going to pay for his fun tonight on Monday, "Night Lisbon." he said sweetly.

Lisbon grumbled in annoyance to herself as she disconnected the mic, deciding to pull it off completely. She was supposed to wait until she was home and pull it off in a gentle specific way, but she was tired and the mic had moved a bit and started digging into her side in a way that was exaggerated by her seat belt. Once it was out and folded carefully away in her glovebox she reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a thin gold chain decorated with a simple cross. Lisbon clasped it back into its place around her neck with ease before she started the engine and began to drive. She reached over to grab her phone and switched it to silent. She didn't want Jane finding out 'Janet's' number - as she knew he would - and calling it to bother her. It wasn't until about half an hour into the drive that she noticed someone following her.


	4. Monday Afternoon - Saturday Morning

**Two days later - CBI headquarters (Monday afternoon)**

The bullpen was awash with activity. Two whiteboards rested in the middle of the floor, covered with various pictures and documents. Boxes of files were piled on the tables and people continually rushed in and out carrying documents and notes and making phone calls. Grace was standing in front of the board, staring at it intently as if that would make it sprout new information. Rigsby and Cho on the other hand were on their phones, frowning in annoyance as they waited for various calls to go through. Jane was unknowingly frightening people away from him. He couldn't stay still. If he sat down he would just shuffle around on the couch for a few minutes before standing up to pace vigorously back and forth with an anxious, frustrated look on his face. Rigsby put down his phone and looked up at the team. "We've got confirmation from the lab. It's defiantly Lisbon's jacket."

Jane kept pacing, "We knew that already; I said that already."

"...and there's more, skin under Jared's fingernails, also Lisbon's." He turned his attention to Jane "Looks like your theory from the crime scene is more and more likely."

"What theory is that?" Wainright marched through the door. "Tell me everything, what do we know?"

Jane barely responded to his entrance so Grace decided to answer "We don't know much, just that it seems that Lisbon was somehow involved in Jared's death, and she has disappeared. It looks like she was at least at the crime scene. Jared works at a club known as "The Red Room" where Lisbon had been undercover. We think she was driving back to her safe house but we haven't found her car yet. We know that she..."

Jane had almost tuned out, something was still bothering him about the crime scene. He should've stayed for longer but the team had convinced him that they needed to get back to the CBI. What was it?

"...we've called Cadie and the rest of the drug squad but we haven't gotten through yet."

"Good. What's Jane's theory?" WAINRIGHT turned to watch Jane pacing. "Jane? Jane!"

Jane stopped in his tracks and looked up "The car," he said "Something about the car."

"What?"

Jane reached over to grab his jacket and walked out the door. "Going to the crime scene."

"We only got back an hour ago!" Rigsby complained.

Wainright took control "Cho, you go with him. Grace, Rigsby follow those leads, and keep bothering the Drug Squad. We need to know when Lisbon vanished and where her car is."

**Saturday Morning – On the Road**

Lisbon really didn't like the fact that somebody was following her. Well, she thought they were following her at least. She turned off a side street and on to a lesser used road winding along the edge of the woods to see if they would follow, slowing her car after she turned the corner. She waited for two or three minutes before concluding that maybe, luckily, they weren't coming. Lisbon restarted the engine and continued along the road, supposing the best thing to do would be to continue to 'Janet's' house and get inside quickly, gun safely by her side.

It was then that she turned around the corner to see another car in front of her, stopped in the middle of the road, lights flashing. She slammed on the breaks but wasn't quite fast enough and although her car slowed, it still had enough force to ram into the front car, knocking it over the edge of the road and down into the woods below.

'Crap', Lisbon shook her head, and blinked a few times before throwing her seatbelt off and clambering out her door. She was fine, her car a little damaged but for the most part okay. She wasn't so sure about whoever was in the other car though. She could see the wreck of the car slammed into a tree down the slope and began to quickly but carefully slide down. She hoped that whoever was inside was somehow okay.


	5. Collision

**Oakland Road, Sacramento, California**

"Thanks. Let us know if you find anything else" Cho put away his phone, "They found the car."

Jane was wandering around the crime scene with a distant, calculating look in his eyes. "Where?"

"Parked a few blocks away from the end of this road. They're taking it back to headquarters as we speak"

"Hmmm"

"What is it?" Cho asked after watching him wander back and forth for a few minutes.

Jane didn't answer, he had stooped down where the body had been, staring the space up and down. "Why was he over here?" he wondered aloud. "He wasn't the driver, so who is he and why was he here" Jane jumped up quickly and walked over to the crashed car which had yet to be moved. He stuck his head inside, yelling back to Cho. "There's no blood"

"Pardon?"

"There's no blood in the car. The car's a wreck, who ever was driving would've been killed, or at least severely injured."

"So no-one was in the car?"

"Exactly."

"But the door has been forced open. You can see the marks."

"Yes, but forced open from the outside."

"Jared?"

"Maybe..." Jane turned around, his eyes scanning a trail in the dirt, a ground up line leading from the road in spurts. "Was this here before? Or was this the SFPD?"

"No, it must have been here before, the SFPD came in from further down the road."

"So someone came down from the road. Saw the crash and came down to help."

**_[The timelines collide, flicking back and forth between Jane following the clues and Lisbon at the crash site.]_**

_Lisbon ran to the front door of the car, the roof had caved in a bit so she couldn't see inside, but she thought she might be able to get the door open, deciding to call for help after she had pulled the person out. Grabbing the least sharp parts of the door she could find, she began to pull._

Jane pointed the trail out with his finger, landing it on the door handle. "They pull off the door before realising that there's nobody inside."

_Lisbon stumbled backwards, hands aching from pulling and wrenching at the door, a deep cut running down the side of her arm where she had sliced it on a sheared metal edge. But she barely noticed. She regained balance quickly and stepped forwards. But the car was empty._

"Then what they do?" He turned on the spot, pointing now at the ground. "They step back."

_Why wasn't there anyone in the car? Lisbon was confused but stuck her head inside to check the rest of the car. There was definitely no-one there. She sighed in relief that no-one was injured. But still... something wasn't quite right. Extracting herself from the car, she stepped back, swinging the door as she did so and beginning to feel the pain aching from her arm. She moved it gingerly, attempting to pull out her phone in the process. She couldn't help but yelp in shock when she felt two hands grab her from behind._

"They find Jared behind them. There's a struggle"

_She wrestled to get out of his grasp, wriggling and squirming and kicking and using her many years of experience to throw the person backwards. She leapt forwards then spun on the spot to face her attacker, fists in the air. Unfortunately, fists were no match for a gun, and the man now had one pointed directly at her, while hers was tucked away out of sight, in her car up on the road._

Jane took a few steps to the side, now standing in front where the body had been.

_Lisbon lowered her fists and raised her hands in the air as if in surrender. "Who are you, what do you want?",  
"As if you don't know. You can't trick Monary that easily"  
"What do you mean, what trick?"  
The man stepped forward "Don't even bother" he said "Stupid woman, you..." but he didn't manage to get another word out because Lisbon had thrown her hands down and knocked the gun out of his hand, finishing her quick actions off with a fist to the chest so forceful that the man bent over and stumbled backwards. Lisbon dove for the gun, reaching it just as her attacker recovered and pulled out another one._

"They shoot." Jane curled his hand into the shape of a gun "Bam."

_Lisbon fired first, the shot went straight on target, slicing its way into the man's shoulder and causing him to cry out in pain. But it didn't stop him and he raised his arm in preparation to fire._

"Bam".

_Although it looked like he had been aiming for her arm, the bullet from his gun slid past her head. Lisbon had to use every inch of her will to forcefully stop her self from freezing in shock at its closeness and the pain of the graze she knew now ran along the side of her head._

"Bam"

_Lisbon aimed at his chest this time._

"And Jared goes down."

_She lowered the gun slowly and walked towards the body. He was definitely dead, but that didn't make her feel any safer. Lisbon began to turn back towards the road, ready to run to her car and drive as fast as she could towards the main road, any main road. She instead looked up the slope to find another two men clambering down it. Both with guns._

Jane turned to Cho. "Where did they find the jacket?"  
Cho pointed past the car further into the woods. Jane ran in the direction he pointed; "For whatever reason they don't go back to their car on the road, instead they come this way"

_Lisbon was somewhat hidden by the position of the car, and as far as she could tell the other two hostile-looking men hadn't seen her yet. Instead they were gesticulating to each other, shouting something that Lisbon couldn't quite hear but which sounded worryingly like "find her". She edged her way around the edge of the car, gun at the ready. If she could make it around it without them seeing her she thought she should be able to back away into the woods and disappear. She just had to time it right._

He walked in a line from the car into the woods, Cho following behind. Cho couldn't quite tell if the consultant was following some sort of trail or making it up as he went along. He was leaning towards 'making it up' since he couldn't see any trail himself, but then again, this was Jane.

_A few more seconds. A few more seconds. Lisbon crouched, leaning forwards on her toes ready to run or shoot if she had to. One more second and she thought she would be able to sneak away. Now. She began to sneak backwards as quietly as she could, slipping around a tree as soon as she felt one at her back, watching the men the whole time. She would be fine as long as they didn't come this way soon. But the moment she thought it she decided that she shouldn't have, because it was at that moment that one of the men turned her way. Lisbon gave up on stealth and ran instead._

Jane came to a spot in the woods surrounded by police tape, little numbers marking the position of evidence.

_Both men were behind her now and although Lisbon was usually a very fast runner, her dress and the pain in her arm and head were slowing her down. They hadn't fired shots yet, but Lisbon thought maybe they knew they didn't need to, they would catch up to her soon anyway and they seemed to want her alive. But she wasn't going to go down without a fight. Before she no longer had the chance she pulled her phone from her pocket. She thought about trying to make a call, but first pulled open the case, forcing the tiny emergency tracker the Drug Squad had hidden in it into the lining of her bra. If she was lucky maybe it wouldn't be found. She realised she had about one more minute before the men caught up to her. Lisbon kept running, pulling off her jacket to try and gain speed and attempting to find a number on the phone that could help her, or at least, help her later. Nothing on 'Janet's' phone looked like it would help and she didn't know Cadie's number. There was only one other number that Lisbon knew by heart that could be of any use. But she was only half way though Jane's number before she was knocked over by one of the men, her gun and phone sent flying._

The ground was quite churned up, marks of a fight clearly visible. Jane searched the area for clues. Cho folded his arms "The SFPD already searched Jane, you won't find anything."

"Pfft, they will definitely have missed something" Sure enough, Jane walked out of the circle of police tape for a second and returned with a something in his hands. "Some broken bits of plastic. Nice"

"Well, yes, but it's mobile phone plastic." Cho did not seem impressed. "Might be useful," Jane muttered, shoving the pieces into his pocket.

_Lisbon threw everything she had left into the fight, trying to find a gun. At some point she felt something tug tightly around her neck and she choked for a second as her necklace was torn from behind her before it snapped and fell to the ground._

"Jane..."

"Wait a second there might be..." A glint of something caught his eye as the sun shone through the trees. He walked towards it, Cho watching as Jane reached down through a bunch of leaves to pull out a thin, broken, gold chain decorated with a gold cross that slid down the chain as Jane pulled it, stopping its slide at the clasp.

_Lisbon staggered, her vision was beginning to blur and she was so sore. The men pulled out their guns again at their first opportunity, but they needn't have bothered. Their small, dangerous, brown-haired target had collapsed onto the ground as they did so, her body finally giving in and closing down for repairs._

Jane held the familiar necklace in the air for a few seconds before coiling it slowly into his hand and clenching his fist tightly around it. 'Please be okay.'  
Refusing to let his own emotions surface, Cho watched Jane carefully. He knew that the whole team was going to be dangerously on the edge until they had found Lisbon, but Jane especially, he thought, would need keeping in check. Cho knew from experience that when it got personal, rules tended to go out the window, and the blonde consultant barely followed any rules to begin with.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  
_To be continued...__  
Next: Back at __CBI Headquarters._  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


	6. Monday Afternoon, CBI headquarters

**CBI headquarters.**

As soon as they had arrived back at the CBI, Jane had started pacing again, sorting through the clues in his head. He had already filled the team in on what he knew of the Drug Squad's operation, but annoyed and cramped up in the surveillance van they hadn't been extremely forthcoming with details. Nothing in Lisbon's car had been particularly useful either, except for its mangled front. All they had found inside was her gun in its secret spot and her neatly folded wire, although the damaged outside had let a few a more things slot into place for Jane.  
He had slowly become even more agitated waiting for someone from the Drug Squad to finally arrive, and he snapped when Cadie walked into the bullpen.

"What took you so long?"

"I was trying to gather all the information I could get my hands on before coming in. We were hoping that the tracker from her phone would still be transmitting but something is blocking the signal."

Cho's eyes flicked to Jane "We found some phone parts at the crime scene, the tracker's not broken?"

"Well we went back and tracked its signal from the weekend. It seems to have gone to the safe house when we thought Lisbon did, but after that it blurs out. It could be faulty."

"Why didn't you know she'd gone off the radar?" Rigsby growled.

Cadie sighed, "As far as we knew she was exactly where she was supposed to be, our tech showed the tracker arriving at the house. But the surveillance was low level, it wasn't supposed to be a dangerous operation, so we can't tell if she was there with the tracker or if it was someone else."

Jane snapped again "I told you Monary was a bad idea. I told you he was more dangerous then you thought. But you had to know better."

"He was our best chance at busting up the whole chain." Cadie did his best to keep his temperature - one of his stronger traits.

"You should have been looking after her!"

Cadie raised his voice just a little, "Look, you might have been right about Monary being more dangerous than we thought, and yes, now I wish we'd had extra surveillance. But Lisbon knew the risks and shouting at each other isn't going to help."

Jane scowled, but for once shut up and went back to pacing. Wainwright took the opportunity to take Cadie's attention.

"So, what do you think happened to Lisbon?"

"Well, considering you didn't find her body at the crime scene I take it that they wanted her alive" Cadie answered matter-of-factly

Wainright nodded "So the question we need to answer is whether they know she's a cop. And what Monary's reaction would be if he did know."

"It's good if they know isn't it?" Grace piped in. "You know - killing a cop is not a great move so maybe if they know they'll keep her alive..."

"...Or not," Cadie interrupted "These guys are hard core. I don't think they'd have any qualms about killing a cop if they thought they could get away with it."

"So we have to decide whether to continue as if she's a cop or Janet. Which one will keep her alive." Cho stated.  
Everyone turned to Jane.

Jane stopped pacing and stared back at them all. Lisbon's life in his hands; as if he wasn't stressed enough already. He turned around for a second and paused, letting everything he knew so far sink into a fully coherent plot before he turned back.

"Max is a clever, mean psychopath. He knows how to mess with people, he can read them. He's used to being right and he's used to getting his own way. He found something fishy about Lisbon and made a great effort to keep her alive, so whatever happened, he thought she could be useful to him. From what I saw on Friday night, Lisbon was doing a pretty good job at being Janet, she didn't let anything slip that could give her away, so unless Max found some other evidence that she was a cop, he doesn't know. Now, her phone was 'Janet's, and it was left behind and broken so he wouldn't know from that, and she had taken her wire off so that couldn't have given her away. They didn't find the wire in the car either, if they had it wouldn't have been so neatly folded. Her car and gun and everything else were 'Janet's'. The other thing that could have given her away of course is if Max had seen her face before, if he had ever seen her on TV or in police files but of course the drug squad did a good job removing Lisbon's info off the system so even if she had seemed familiar, he probably couldn't have found out who she was."

"So you think it's safe to say that they don't know she's a cop?" Wainright surmised.

"I think so."

"But is that good or bad?" Grace asked, "Do we need to let him know she's a cop or will that get her killed?"

"If she's not dead already," Cadie murmured, garnering glares and shocked looks from the team.

"She's alive." Jane said with conviction, and a cold glare at Cadie, "Max went to too much trouble to keep her alive so that he could get whatever information he thinks she has. Now Lisbon's a good cop, so I doubt she will have told him anything yet, so for now, she's alive. But if Max finds out that she's a cop she won't be for much longer. A cop is too much of a risk. We go along with the fact that she's Janet."  
Everyone paused for a second, quietly taking everything in.

"Okay then." Wainright turned to the others. "Grace, Cho, you go to the Red Room; ask around after Janet. Missing person, has anybody seen her etc. Rigsby, work with Cadie, see if you can work out what Max thinks 'Janet' knows. Cadie, can you set your team on surveillance? We need to see if we can find out where they've taken Lisbon."

"Of course" Cadie answered.

"Good" Wainright began to turn around, "Jane, I want you to..." but Jane had vanished.

___- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_  
To be continued...  
_More coming in the next few days :)  
Next: The Red Room and an Unknown Warehouse  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_


End file.
